Leading Democrat slams Republican move to close hearings on US' Iraq 
intelligence
Thu Jun 12, 3:31 PM ET Agence France Presse
 
WASHINGTON (AFP) - A top congressional Democrat slammed as "totally inadequate" 
a decision by Republican lawmakers to hold closed door hearings on the quality 
and accuracy of intelligence reports used to justify the US-led invasion of 
Iraq. 

Republican leaders in Congress refused Wednesday to establish a special 
commission to investigate allegations that intelligence reports about Iraqi 
weapons of mass destruction had been manipulated to justify the war. 
The US House of Representatives' top Democrat, Nancy Pelosi, decried the 
decision, saying closed door hearings would be "a disservice to the American 
people and their security." 

"Our president needs the best possible intelligence ... to protect the American 
people and our men and women in uniform," she said. 
"I believe that what the Republicans announced yesterday is totally inadequate," 
she said, adding that the question of possible US intelligence glitches should 
"be aired as publicly as possible." 
"If you want the public to have ... confidence in our intelligence, then there 
will have to be a fuller, more open" probe. 

More than eight weeks after the ouster of Iraqi president Saddam Hussein, the US 
military has yet to find Iraq's alleged weapons of mass destruction, which the 
White House gave as its primary motivation for invading Iraq. 

The Senate Intelligence Committee next week also begins closed-door hearings 
into Washington's prewar intelligence on Iraq.